Disclaimer: See previous twenty-nine chapters

Gohan's walk to Tanzaku was only few days, to his surprise. During that time, he and Shizune had discovered they got along rather well. Shizune had told him all about Tsunade as they walked too. "She's a fantastic woman, deep down," Shizune was saying after they stopped for the day, "but she's really rather coarse on the outside."

"Why?" Gohan asked.

"Well, it's mostly because of her past. She lost her lover, Dan, my uncle, during the war and her brother Nawaki was also killed in the line of duty. It…changed her, Gohan-kun. She left Konoha, took me with her to train me, and we've been wandering ever since. She developed a huge fear of blood because of the way Uncle Dan died and she started gambling and drinking. Now we spend most of our time either in gambling dens or running from debt collectors."

Gohan stopped doing his one-armed push ups to regard Shizune. "I'm sorry," he said, at a loss for any other words. He resumed his workout when Shizune waved away the apologies.

"It was nothing you did," she answered. "It was the war. War changes people. You're lucky, Gohan-kun. You've never seen war, never seen the body-strewn battlefields, the bloody grass, the legions of corpses in body bags, the maimed coming into the hospital, missing legs and arms. You've never seen any of the families of those who didn't come back."

Gohan stopped again and sat up. His recently-repaired right arm was shaking with the exhaustion of the workout and he could barely move it, but he used it to grab the towel and wipe his face anyway. He was making good progress. Already his arm was responding better. Shizune said it was because of the fact that his arm was still supplied by blood and nutrients. He'd still lost muscle because of disuse, but it wasn't much and he was quickly gaining it back thanks to his heritage, ravenous appetite, and ruthless workout regimen. When Shizune had first seen him doing push-ups on his bad hand, she'd thought he would push his arm to its literal breaking point. It hadn't happened, thankfully and each day Gohan increased the viciousness of his assault on his arm.

"I've seen more of than you could possibly know," Gohan said finally, jolting Shizune from her contemplation of Gohan's work ethic. Shizune tossed him a water bottle. He waited for the last possible second, then his arm snapped up and across, swiping it from the air. The boy's lips curled up in an approving half-smile, then he undid the cap and took a big drink, water spilling down his chin.

"What do you mean?" Shizune asked as her traveling companion wiped his chin and dumped the rest of the bottle over his head to cool himself off.

"I've been involved in a lot of battles to save the world and other worlds," Gohan said finally. The plastic bottle in his hand crunched as it clenched. "And I was worthless in every damn one of them!" Shizune smiled inwardly. She'd been right when she's said that Gohan would confront his inner demons sooner rather than later.

"Tell me about them."

Gohan flipped himself into an easy handstand then took his left hand and put behind his back. From there he started bobbing up and down in unmistakably vertical push-ups. Shizune shook her head. Really, the boy didn't know when to take a break. What she didn't expect was for Gohan to start telling her about a whole other world and the fantastic people and places that went with it.

"Wow, this place is cool!" Naruto shouted as he beheld the spectacle of Tanzaku town. He and Jiraiya had arrived in town only a day or so previously and now they were wandering the city like the rest of the tourists. The only difference between them and the rest of the crowd was Jiraiya's scroll and Naruto's flamboyant outfit and Konoha hirai-ate. He found himself drawing more than a few glances as people wondered what two shinobi wanted in Tanzaku town. Naruto didn't care. Well, more specifically, Naruto didn't notice since he was so absorbed in his Rasengan training. He finally felt like he was making headway with the jutsu, having graduated to the last phase of the training.

Unfortunately, for the chakra-control-challenged Naruto, this was proving to be the hardest step. In his hands he held another balloon, only unlike his last one, this balloon was filled with air, not water. According to Ero-sennin, Naruto's task was to take what he'd been doing with the water balloon and the rubber ball and apply it to this phase. That meant taking his chakra, spinning it every which way as hard and fast as he could, and then containing it within a membrane of chakra. If Naruto did it right, he would form a perfect globe of spinning chaotic chakra inside the balloon which would spin with all the force and power of a handheld hurricane, but at the same time, the chakra membrane would contain it and not allow it to touch the balloon walls.

Naruto was having a hard time with the whole 'membrane of chakra' thing. His balloon kept bursting, letting all the power contained the Rasengan out, often with surprising and unusual results.

The balloon in Naruto's hand burst with a sound like a cannon, sending wind whipping everywhere. The young woman that Jiraiya was chatting with about Tsunade's whereabouts screamed, mortified, as her kimono's obi snapped like a rubber band and her kimono burst wide open, showing Jiraiya's suddenly-bugging eyes everything.

"Best failure ever," a used and abused Jiraiya said sometime later, chuckling his Ero-laugh as Naruto squinted at another balloon.

"You say something, Ero-sennin?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Jiraiya answered, giggling again. The pair crisscrossed the town, looking everywhere for Tsunade, but coming up empty. They turned a corner and vanished. Only a few seconds later, Shizune and Gohan rounded another corner and started walking up the street.

"That's too bad, Gohan-kun," Shizune was saying. Gohan had just finished telling her about his run in with Itachi and the torture that had come with it. "But you can't let what Itachi did hold you back."

"He's not holding me back," Gohan answered. "He just showed me what I really am. I'm a failure. An arrogant little kid who can't do anything to protect his family or himself."

"You're not being fair," Shizune answered. "Look at all the great things you've done. You helped out Dende, you saved your father from your uncle. You've saved your world two or three times over. You've stood up for what you hold dear and you've come out on top."

"I got lucky, that's all."

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good," Shizune said bracingly. "As for what happened with Uchiha Itachi, there's no way you could've known that he was going to use the Tsukuyomi on you. You had no way to know what would happen."

"I thought I could win," Gohan mumbled.

"And given your track record, rightly so, but Gohan-kun, there're people out there who are much stronger than Orochimaru and even stronger than Itachi. Akatsuki is a dangerous organization, made up of very powerful missing-nin from all corners of the shinobi world. You'll have to accept that you'll lose to one or two of them before the organization comes tumbling down."

"Maybe," Gohan mumbled, but he didn't sound convinced. "But I always freeze when my friends need me the most."

"Did you hesitate when your father threw you into the ring against…what was his name?"

"Cell."

"Cell, right. Did you hesitate?"

"No but…"

"Did you hesitate against your uncle?"

"No but…"

Shizune kept going, heedless of Gohan's protests. She was determined to prove to the young man that he wasn't useless. "What about during the exams? What about Orochimaru? You dove headlong into the fray against him, even when you had two-thirds of your power sealed away and unusable. Do you know how many wouldn't even try that? You've shown more spine than most shinobi show in a lifetime."

"But I failed!" Gohan protested, determined to be heard this time.

"Only if you look at it in the context of killing. Yes you failed to kill Orochimaru, but you allowed Sakura to escape with Sasuke and Naruto. You were marked in your second encounter with him, yes, but ninety percent of the people who receive that seal die. Only a very tough person can survive it."

Gohan didn't protest this time. He knew it was a futile gesture. He was a failure and even Shizune would come to see that eventually. Gohan was grateful for her faith in him, but she would see him for what he really was eventually. Shizune seemed to notice, but she didn't press the point.

But what if Shizune's right? Asked a small part of Gohan. What if you really are what you appear to be? A strong warrior, compassionate to his friends, always willing to put his life on the line for them and defeat the threat to them?

'Then why did I fail?' Gohan asked the inner voice. 'Why was Itachi able to defeat me so easily? If it hadn't been for Jiraiya-sama, I would be dead and Naruto would have been captured and probably tortured.'

You're only looking at the negative parts of your life, the voice answered. What about when you first ascended to Super Saiyan in the Time Chamber with your father? Remember how proud of you he was? He was ecstatic and so were you.

Gohan didn't answer the part of him that was arguing against his current mindset. Still, after listening to Shizune and now the debate with himself, Gohan could feel a stirring of something new inside him. It was an unfamiliar feeling, but it didn't sit well with him. It made his stomach do flip flops and brought a sour taste to his mouth. He blinked. He couldn't place the feeling, having never felt it before. He thought long and hard about it and then came up with his answer.

Loathing.

It was loathing, a state of mind that surpassed even hatred. But why was he feeling this now, he wondered? What had happened to make him loathe something so completely, so totally? He hadn't been in any fights recently. His last go-round had been with Itachi. Since then, he really hadn't had the heart for a fight. Hell, he'd even started neglecting his training little by little. He just didn't have the motivation for it, stopping to wonder what was the point every time he started. Only now that he'd gotten his arm back had he gotten back into the swing of things and brought his body back to its peak while he worked to bring his arm up to par.

It was then that Gohan managed to tag the source of his loathing. It was him. Gohan himself was the source of Gohan's loathing. His deepest desires, his innermost thoughts, his drive to push himself to higher limits, all of it was suddenly rebelling against him. He didn't loathe someone he loathed himself! Loathed what he had become. The most central part of his character was rebelling against him. Perhaps it was talking with Shizune, perhaps it was regaining his arm, or perhaps he'd finally pulled his head out his ass, but however it happened, Gohan knew that what he'd become was utterly reprehensible.

"What the hell are you doing boy!?" Piccolo's voice bellowed at him, floating to him from over the mists of time and memory. The teen smiled wistfully, knowing that that was exactly how Piccolo would react if he saw what had happened to his student now. "You get your ass kicked once and you fall to pieces? So what!? If you didn't win, then you weren't strong enough! Train more! Train harder! Train until you can beat the one who beat you! Now quit wasting time and get started!"

"That sounds familiar," Gohan said with a laugh, thinking of Naruto, how irate the blond had been. In fact, his reaction would've made Piccolo proud. It was probably a good thing the two would never meet otherwise Gohan would be in a world of hurt if he ever acted like this again.

"I'm sorry?" Shizune asked, glancing back at him. "Did you say something, Gohan-kun?"

"Nothing, Shizune-san," he said with a grin, "nothing at all. In fact, I feel better than I have in weeks!" The kunoichi blinked, surprised. Gohan had changed. It wasn't a physical change as much as it was a mental one. Ever since they'd met, Gohan had always had a sad look and he walked with a slight hunch to his shoulders, like he bore a great weight and it was slowly but steadily crushing him. Half the time, he walked in a daze, as if he was unaware of the goings-on around him. Now though, something had changed.

He still walked as if he bore a weight, but he was more erect now, as if he were better able to carry the burden. His eyes were brighter and it looked like he was taking in more of the world around him instead of just watching his feet. He certainly looked more focused and…brighter, somehow.

Shizune smiled to herself. It looked like he was finally coming out of whatever funk he'd been in. It was still incomplete. There was a hesitance still in his stride, as if he were still afraid to turn the corner and confront some horrible demon that he couldn't win against, but it was much less pronounced. Gohan still had a ways to go, but he was making great progress. He was returning to the confident warrior he'd once been. Privately, Shizune couldn't wait until he was back to his peak.

She wanted to meet the real Son Gohan.

Tsunade stared at the cards in her hand, careful to keep her expression neutral. In her hand she held the two of hearts, the ace of spades, the ten of spades, the ace of clubs, and the four of diamonds. She pulled out the two, the ace of clubs, and the four, and set them down on the table without a word. The dealer slid three new cards across the smooth felt to her in equal silence. She picked them up and had to bite her tongue to keep from reacting.

She'd been dealt a king, queen, and jack, all of spades.

Tsunade had just ended up with a Royal Flush. She glanced at the men around her. She had only two thousand ryo in front of her after starting with ten, an insignificant sum for her, as the granddaughter of the Shodai and one of the top three shinobi of her, and several succeeding, generations. The pot stood at over fifty thousand ryo. She would win back her money five times over if she won now. Anyone else would've been elated at the prospect.

Not Senju Tsunade.

"Show 'em," the dealer said. The rest of the people present laid down their cards. There were exclamations and curses when Tsunade showed her hand.

"Royal Flush!?" One man howled. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

"How'd she get that good of a hand?" Another griped. "She's had shitty hands all day! She's been folding more than actually playing!"

"Must've cheated," a third added as the dealer, looking rather dumbstruck himself, pushed the massive stack of chips towards Tsunade, who looked less like a woman and more like a wooden statue.

Tsunade's chair clattered backwards as the Sannin stood up abruptly. The man who'd made the remark about cheated shrank backward, clearly fearing the Legendary Sucker's well-known strength. Instead, Tsunade picked up the case she'd carried into the game with her and swept from the room without a word. The heels of her sandals clicked on the wooden floor of the gambling house as she all but dashed out the door.

The men looked at the pile of chips, then to each other.

"So…uh…who's gonna get all this?" one asked.

Tsunade burst into the sunshine outside the gambling parlor and set off at a brisk clip, her destination being her hotel room. She had to get out of town and fast. She would leave a message for Shizune (where was that woman anyway?) at the front desk and split town. Tsunade had no real destination in mind, but she didn't need one. All she knew was that she'd won at poker and when she won at gambling, slots, pachinko, poker, black jack, anything to do with betting and winning or losing money, something bad was about to happen and she had to split right then and there.

The jade jewel of the Shodai's necklace bounced on her chest as she trotted back to her hotel.

"So where is this Tsunade person?" Gohan asked, looking around. He was eager to get to wherever she was and get settled in so he could start his training. He didn't know if he would be able to protect everyone close to him, to never lose in battle again, but dammit, he was going to try! "I don't see her."

"I'm sure she's around here somewhere," Shizune said, looking at a small slip of paper in her hand. "Her note says that she'll be here and…" She trailed off abruptly. She'd just caught sight of a familiar haori with the kanji for gambling on the back of it vanish into the crowd. The twin blond ponytails were a big clue too. Not many people in the world had that combination. "There she is!"

"Where?"

"There!" Shizune dashed off, Gohan hot on her heels. "Tsunade-sama, wait for us!" The Sannin didn't hear and vanished into the crushing tide of people like only a shinobi could.

"Dammit!" Shizune swore, stomping her foot. "Every time!"

"I'm sure we'll find her," Gohan said, looking around. "She can't have gotten too far."

"You're right," Shizune said distractedly, looking for her master. "We'll split up and look for her separately. We'll meet up at that restaurant we saw on the way here after sunset if we don't find her."

"Can we eat then?" Gohan asked.

"Only if you pay for yourself," Shizune quipped with a smile. Gohan grinned in return and the two of them dashed off into the crowd.

Neither took the right turn to find Tsunade.

Tsunade disarmed the trap on her door with skilled ease and let herself in. She stopped. Somehting wasn't right. Long dead shinobi instincts, instincts she'd truthfully believed she had left behind, told her that someone had been here before her. Maybe it was a muffled footstep. Maybe it was a curl of bloodlust, a slight noise, or perhaps it was a smear in the dust on the floor. However it happened, Tsunade was on her guard as she stepped cautiously into the living room that did triple duty as the bedroom and kitchen. She approached the door that split the room into bathroom and living room and threw it open wide.

Nothing. Only the drip of the water from her last bath that she'd neglected to let out in her eagerness to go gambling. Her gaze turned to the window, to the right of the bathroom door, and the black metal of the fire escape outside. She slid the window open and stuck her head out the window.

Empty.

A search of the closet revealed the same. Tsunade's frown deepened. It seemed that the hotel room, more of an apartment really, was empty. The Slug Princess shrugged. She was rusty, she reasoned, rusty and wound up from her win at the gambling house. Tsunade smiled. She was just jumpy, yes, that was it. Then she stopped, thought about what had happened and almost put her fist through a wall.

"I just left all that money sitting there!" She moaned. "Dammit!" She shed her haori, letting it flutter to the floor. She pulled her top closed a little more. She normally left it open to the point that it showed off a very impressive amount of cleavage, but there was something here that was giving her chills.

Tsunade whirled and lashed out at the air near the table. The air rippled with movement as the intruder leaped backwards, the genjutsu he'd shrouded himself in dropping with a crack like breaking ice. The intruder was a young man, no more than twenty, with round glasses, silver hair pulled back into a short ponytail, and nondescript clothes. "Impressive," he said, pushing his glasses farther up on his nose with one hand. "What gave me away?"

"You're a hundred years too early to pull one over on me with just an invisibility genjutsu," Tsunade snapped. "Who are you? Answer fast before I decide to start swinging for the fences!"

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto," Kabuto answered, holding up his hands soothingly. "And I have a request I'd like to make."

"I don't do requests."

"Oh no, not from me," Kabuto said. "I'm just the messenger sent to collect you. My master would like to meet with you to discuss a proposal. A job, one that should be simple for a kunoichi of your skill set and it will prove more profitable for you than you can imagine."

Tsunade sat down at the table as Kabuto backed up a few paces, wisely keeping himself out of the volatile kunoichi's grip. "I don't do requests," Tsunade repeated stubbornly, showing Kabuto her back, propping her head up on one fist. "Now beat it."

"I'm afraid I cannot accept no as an answer," the other medic said promptly, earning him a glare from Tsunade. "And are you sure you wish to turn this down?"

"Positive," Tsunade snipped, again facing away from Kabuto. The silver-haired man contemplated attacking Tsunade's open back right then and there, to end a threat to Orochimaru, but knew the second he got within range, Tsunade would be on her feet and on him, decimating him with the titanic strength that, along with her medicinal skills, had made her a living legend.

"So you don't wish to seen Dan and Nawaki again?"

Kabuto smirked as he saw the Sannin's shoulders freeze. There was dead silence for almost a minute. Finally, haltingly, Tsunade sat up straight and faced Kabuto. There was anger, surprise, wariness, and appraisal in her brown eyes. "How do you know those names?" She asked, tone icy.

'I have to be careful how I play this,' Kabuto thought, trying not to gulp. This wasn't some little genin he was dealing with. This was a person just as strong, perhaps even stronger, than Orochimaru. "Calm down please," he said, trying to be soothing. "As I said, I'm but the messenger. My master is the one who wishes to speak with you."

"What did you say your master's name was?"

"I didn't, but I do believe you will recognize the name Orochimaru."

Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't that. Tsunade would've been rocked back on her heels if she'd been standing. Orochimaru. The haughty prodigy from years ago, when she had still believed in life and the shinobi way. She'd never wanted to hear that name again. Tsunade had been running from her past for a long time. It wasn't supposed to catch up to her.

And now it had.

"I assume I am correct in saying that you'll recognize the name?" The kid, Kabuto he said his name was, asked, pushing up his glasses again in what was clearly a habitual gesture. Tsunade was already sizing him up. He was lean. That meant fast. More of a one-hit-one-kill type of fighter or an inexperienced fighter, like a lot of medics tended to be. His weight was on his heels. That meant he could fall back easily, but couldn't come ahead quickly. It would give her a half-second, maybe a little less, to get on her feet should he attack. The glasses probably meant poor eyesight. If she could knock them off, it would be over. His master was Orochimaru. This kid wasn't to be taken lightly.

"What's that bastard want?"

"A meeting, as I said. Please, Tsunade-sama, I would appreciate it I didn't have to keep repeating myself."

"Don't screw with me!" Tsunade snarled, shooting to her feet. "It's never 'just' anything with him!"

"Fair enough," Kabuto said with a nod. "Well then, Orochimaru-sama would like to discuss a job with you. Should you choose to do the job, then you'll be rewarded with…"

"Let me guess," Tsunade interrupted, folding her arms under her impressive bust. "I'll get to keep my life or something like that, right?"

"You'll have Dan and Nawaki back."

"What? Dan is dead! Nawaki too!"

"Not if you do this job for Orochimaru. He's developed a technique that will allow him to resurrect the dead. For him to bring back your lover and little brother is a small task indeed, even if they have indeed passed on from this world."

Kabuto smiled to himself when he saw Tsunade bite the inside of her lip ever so discreetly. She tried not to show it, but little escaped the gaze of even a half-competent ninja, which Kabuto was not. Such a title belonged more on the shoulders of Uzumaki Naruto. The silence spiraled horribly and as time went by, Kabuto could see Tsunade starting to think with her head and not her heart. If she did that, she wouldn't be of use to Orochimaru at all and the two of them would have to kill Naruto and bring down the retribution of Akatsuki on them directly instead of on Tsunade.

"Think of it, please, Tsunade-sama," Kabuto said softly. "You could hold your lover in your arms again. See him whole and alive. You could laugh with your little brother. All those years you've lost with them because of a few unfortunate strokes of fate's brush could be regained with the help of an old teammate."

Indecision once again clouded Tsunade's features and Kabuto could see her fantasizing it. Finally, the moments of indecision passed and the Slug Princess slumped.

"Alright," she said. "Where's Orochimaru?"

Kabuto's inward smile broadened into a triumphant grin.

Shizune found herself on the outskirts of Tanzaku with no sign of Tsunade. Where had that woman gotten to this time, Shizune wondered? Really, for a woman who was in her fifties, Tsunade sure got around. Most people her age would have retired from active shinobi duty, sat themselves down on their porch, and started playing Shogi or Go with other retired shinobi, only rarely going on missions or going into the reserves, to be called up only when the situation was very, very, dire.

"Then again," the out-of-breath kunoichi muttered to herself, looking around, "Tsunade-sama is hardly your average shinobi. ARGH!" She yelled, suddenly, rubbing vigorously at her scalp. "Where is she!?"

A flash of blond hair and a green haori caught Shizune's attention. She looked up, hardly daring to believe it, but believe it she did when she saw Tsunade's figure sticking out of the late-afternoon crowd that was flowing out from Tanzaku castle, heading into town for a drink or dinner. "There she is! Tsunad….!" Shizune's cry cut off short when she saw a silver-haired man come out of the crowd behind her. For a second, she thought Kakashi was in town on a mission, since he was the only one she knew of with silver hair, but then she saw the glasses and short ponytail, ruling out Kakashi. From everything she'd heard of the infamous Copy-Ninja, Kakashi didn't wear his hair in a ponytail. Instead, the unfamiliar man fit another description she'd heard of, only recently.

Yakushi Kabuto, the man who'd deprived Gohan-kun of the use of one arm for the better part of a month. 'Gohan-kun said Kabuto works for Orochimaru,' she thought. 'So if Orochimaru's right hand man is here, then that means Orochimaru is too.' She started scanning the walls and roofs of the castle, looking for any sign of a human figure up there. She didn't see anyone.

"If it's Orochimaru," she muttered, "I won't be able to get close enough to know what he wants, so let's find another way!"

Gohan stood outside the eatery where he was supposed to meet Shizune. It had been almost five minutes past sunset and if there was one thing Gohan learned in this world, it was that shinobi were punctual. Even being one minute late might mean you were dead, in trouble, or were about to die. Gohan didn't think that was the case, but still, it set him on edge. Shizune came around the corner.

"Gohan-kun!" She called, waving. He waved back and then stopped. A woman was with Shizune. She had fair, pale, skin, blond hair that framed her face and cascaded down her back in twin ponytails and a purple diamond tattoo in the middle of her forehead. Her brown eyes roamed over Gohan, taking him in, sizing him up, and dismissing him! A part Gohan bristled at the idea, but he realized that this was probably Tsunade of the Sannin. As such, she was as strong, if not stronger than Orochimaru. Therefore, she would kick his ass, plain and simple. Besides, he wasn't sure he was willing to risk fighting anyone right now. He didn't have the power to protect everyone yet. "May I introduce Tsunade-sama of the Sannin?" Shizune asked.

"It's very nice to meet you," Gohan said with a polite bow. "I am…"

"Who the hell is this, Shizune?" Tsunade demanded, looking sharply at her aide and probably only friend. Gohan blinked. Shizune had warned him Tsunade was coarse, but to him, coarse and just too damn blunt were two entirely different things.

"Tsunade-sama, please at least show him some courtesy," Shizune hissed at her mistress under her breath. "This is Son Gohan," Shizune said loud enough for Gohan to actually hear the words without having to lip-read. "He's…uh…my patient I guess you could call him."

"You guess?" Tsunade repeated. She looked over Gohan again. "What's wrong with him? I don't see anything…"

"His arm's nerves were severed over a month ago," Shizune explained quickly, glancing quickly at Gohan to see how he was taking it. To her surprise, he was matching Tsunade glare for glare and he'd shed a little bit more of that invisible weight on his shoulders. "I ran into him in the last town and I fixed him up."

"A month? That means physical therapy yeah?" The last was aimed at the boy himself.

"Yeah," Gohan answered.

"Well get someone else to do it," Tsunade said, brushing past him and going into the restaurant. "Shizune has her own duties to do and I don't need her distracted by some kid who needs to do push-ups."

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shrieked, mortified. "At least show him some courtesy!" The Slug Princess ignored her and went into the eatery. They heard her snap an order at the waiter inside, demanding to be seated, even through the sliding dividers the place sported instead of doors. It was a more traditional place with the whole wood-and-rice paper dividers. "I'm so sorry for her behavior!" Shizune gushed to Gohan with a deep bow. "I didn't think she'd act like that!"

Gohan waved it away. "I'm used to worse. Vegeta's about that gruff too, but maybe she does have him topped. As impossible as that was," he muttered under his breath.

Shizune heard him and giggled. She'd heard plenty about the prideful Prince of Saiyans when Gohan had been opening up to her. "I still don't like her acting like this. I don't know what's gotten into her." Shizune crossed her fingers in her head, hoping Gohan didn't pick up on the lie. In truth, Shizune knew exactly what Tsunade's problem was. The more conflicted Tsunade got, the surlier she tended to be. She longed to see her brother and lover again, but to get them back she had to kill Uzumaki Naruto. Gohan, as one of Naruto's closest, and perhaps the closest, friends, would be understandably upset if Shizune told him. Right now, it seemed 'ignorance is bliss' was the way to go. "I wish we could straighten her up. Maybe a good shock or something…"

Gohan got a grin that would've looked more at home on one blond Jinchuuriki's face. "Tsunade is paying for the meal, right?" Gohan asked. Shizune blinked. Gohan should've known full well that Tsunade would never…

Shizune's eyes got round as she figured it out. "Yes," the aide answered with a matching grin. "Yes she is."

And that's it for this chapter! More of a character development thing than anything else, but it did bring along some positive things. Gohan's head is out of his ass, or getting there at least, and his arm is coming back up to par after what, five chapters? Since I update about every month or so, that means after five long months, almost half a year, Gohan is whole and (physically) healthy. Next chapter should introduce some fighting and set the stage for the BIG fight coming out later. I think you guys will enjoy it. Anyway, there were no jutsu used this chapter, which means no glossary. Leave a review and I'll see you next chapter!